Chess for Android with UCI support released

[thorstenczub]

Hi Aart, now that we have different UCI engines, and the first dual core Tablet-PCs appear in the shops, it would be a good idea IMO to have a GUI that can handle matches between 2 UCI engines
or engine-tournaments.

do you think there is a chance to realize this for android ?

[AartBik]

do you think there is a chance to realize this for android ?

I am still, very slowly, working on this feature. I hope to post something soon (but I have a lot less "spare" time during the holidays than I expected.....).

[thorstenczub]

ok. thanks. that sounds promising.
take all your time you need.
best wishes to you and your family...

[AartBik]

ok. thanks. that sounds promising.

Here is a small preview of the upcoming feature. First import a primary UCI engine (defaults to built-in engine if skipped), import a secondary UCI engine, then start a match. For now, this will start ten games between the two engines, using a move-per-second setting determined through the regular "Level" setting. The games are saved as PGN in a file for later inspection.

[thorstenczub]

this sounds good.
can you save the search depth, eval and main line optional in the PGN as {} comments so that one can analyze what was going on afterwards ?
that would be nice.

i am getting my tegra2 tablet-pc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_Vega
in a few days and we can try it out on its 2 core
hardware...

i hope the screen resolution of 1024x600 helps.

[AartBik]

can you save the search depth, eval and main line optional in the PGN as {} comments

The first implementation is done. After importing two UCI engines, a match of ten games is played using random openings from the built-in book allocating a fixed time per move (set through the "Level"). All games are saved in a "match.pgn" file, which can be imported in any other chess program, such as Arena. Some screenshots and the PGN of a fast match between BikJump and GNUChess are attached (storing more evaluation information in the PGN is still to-be-done). I hope to release this full feature sometimes early in January.

[AartBik]

As another experiment with my prototype code, here is the cross-table for a full one second per move tournament for various UCI engines compiled "natively" for Android. The PGN for all matches is attached.

Code: Select all

                 1          2          3          4          5 
1 Stockfish 1.9  ********** 11½0100101 111111½111 1111111111 1111111111 35.0/40 
2 Crab 1.0 beta  00½1011010 ********** 111½1½1111 1111111111 1111111111 33.5/40 
3 GNU Chess 5.07 000000½000 000½0½0000 ********** ½½11111110 1111111111 19.5/40 
4 BikJump v2.1P  0000000000 0000000000 ½½00000001 ********** 1111111111 12.0/40 
5 ZCT-0.3.2500   0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 **********  0.0/40  (++) 

++ ZCT replies immediately on "movetime" commands, explaining its poor performance in this tournament

[thorstenczub]

that looks very good aart.

[AartBik]

I have added the ability to annotate the PGN with engine analysis information. See below for a screenshot in Arena.

A happy 2011 everyone!

[thorstenczub]

yes. happy new year. to all the computerchess people all over the world....